By Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post

Next week, there will be an opportunity to learn more about how to be prepared for severe weather season.

Every year, Buchanan County Emergency Management and St. Joseph Emergency Management, along with the National Weather Service and the American Red Cross, put on a free weather spotter class.

The class will be held on Tuesday during Severe Weather Awareness Week which is March 4-8.

Buchanan County Emergency Management Director Bill Brinton said the week is a good time to make sure your family has an emergency plan in place.

“Spring is right around the corner and we may have tornadoes and we may even now still have blizzards, but you have to have a plan and you have to be prepared,” Brinton said. “The American Red Cross has some excellent brochures about how to do a plan and how to make an emergency kit for your family and how to just make sure that you know what to do, how to set up your points of contact, where you’re going to be. It’s available by just stopping by their office.”

Another way to learn how to prepare for severe weather is through the weather spotter class. Brinton said everyone is encouraged to attend.

“We have our fire protection districts all come and are part of it, but we would like to have the average person come and just learn about how to not become a victim of a bad storm,” Brinton said.

A representative from the National Weather Service will present and there will be an opportunity after for a question and answer session.

The weather spotter class will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, at the Historic Missouri Theater in St. Joseph. For more information, contact Buchanan County Emergency Management at (816) 271-1574.